Device for directing the attention to advertising-signs.



Z. T. MERRILL. DEVICE FOR DIREGTING THE ATTENTION T0 ADVERTISING SIGNS.

APPLIOATIOK FILED SEPT.26. 1909.

Patented 0et.24,1911TT Elwin Me a atk wlu \ZOLUMBIA P ZACHARA T. MERRILL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

DEVICE FOR DIRECTING THE ATTENTION T0 ADVERTISING-SIGNS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 24, 1911.

Application filed September 25, 1909. Serial No. 519,562.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ZACHARA T. MERRILL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements in Devices for Directing the Attention to Advertising-Signs, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a device for directing the attention to advertising signs.

It is a well known fact that a moving object will attract the attention when a stationary or immovable one will be passed unnoticed. I avail myself of this fact by so constructing a sign or attachment thereto that such sign or attachment will, when a person is passing it, have the appearance of moving or changing while in fact it does not move. In other words, the device is so constructed that a startling optical illusion is produced in the mind of the moving observer, which at once fixes the attention upon the sign with which the device is connected. I

My invention is further explained by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 represents a front perspective view of a sign in connection with the device by which the optical illusion is produced, and Fig. 2 is an end perspective view of the device shown in Fig. 1, slightly modified.

Like parts are identified by the same reference numerals throughout the several views.

IVhile for brevity of description, I have referred to my invention as a device for directing attention to advertising sign boards, I wish it to be understood that the device is adapted to be used with any kind of printed or pictorial illustrations for advertising purposes regardless of the material of which it is constructed, and while the device is especially adapted to be used in connection with the ordinary field signs located along railways and other public high ways, it may, with slight modification, be used for window signs and the like.

Referring to the drawings, 1 represents a board as it is usually supported in a field at a distance from a railway track or other high way.

2 represents a high way along which the public are presumed to travel as they observe the board at a distance.

The board 1 is provided with a plurality of apertures through which reflected light passes from a series of light reflecting objects 6. The series of light reflecting objects 6 are made of different colors or of different designs, whereby as the angle of the line of vision between a moving person and such objects changes, the several objects or colors of the series will be successively seen through the same aperture, whereby the appearance of the sign board will be continually changed as the observer passes in front of it. For example, a person in passing from A to B (see Fig. 1), will see the several colors, red, purple, blue, green and yellow, as indicated by the reference letters R, P, B, G and Y on the back of member 7, alternating with the colors yellow, green, blue and red as in .dicated by the reference letters Y, G, B and R, shown on the front member 8 of the device, and such colors will, as the observer rapidly passes them, be given the appearance of actually moving and alternating with each other, while by the arrangement of the several colors at an angle to each other and said apertures, as shown in Fig. 2, the colors on one member will be caused to blend with those on the other member, as the person passes rapidly before them. It will be understood that the apertures through which the light is reflected from the back member may be formed either in the ordinary sign, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 2, or they may be made separately from a sign and secured to the same, as may be found most expedient, the object being, as stated, simply to attract the attention of the public to the sign.

While I have thus far shown and described a plurality of alternately arranged colors in connection with the front and rear members, I wish it to be understood that a variety of figures may be substituted for the several colors, and such figures may be so located in rear of the apertures, that the light will be reflected from the figures through the apertures, whereby as a person is passing before the sign, the figures will have the appearance of changing or moving, and the attention thereby attracted.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,'is

1. In a device of the described class, the combination of two stationary boards, one located in front of the other, the rear board being provided with a plurality of diflerent colors and the front board with a plurality of apertures alternating with diflerent colors, said boards being located at such a distance apart that several of said colors on the rear board may be viewed at a distance and at difi'erent angles through the apertures of the front board, whereby the colors of the respective boards will, to the moving observer, have the appearance of moving, and means for rigidly I supporting such boards in a fixed relative position to each other.

In a device of the described class, the combination of two stationary boards, one provided with a plurality of different colors and the other provided with a plurality of apertures and different colors alternating with each other, the colors on one board be- ZAGHARA T. MERRILL.

lVitnesses I. D. BREMER, 0. It. ERWIN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. C. 

